"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."

Believers, the above verse (Romans 10:17) is translated as "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" in many popular versions of the Bible. Nothing wrong with this. Christ and God the Father are one. The original Greek text says "...the word of Christ."

The Law of Moses is the word of God and every single dot of it will come to pass. But the Law of Moses is not the GOOD NEWS of Christ that we as believers are to be hearing. Most bible verses have the precise translation from the original Greek text:

"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." NASB

See the TPT: "Faith, then, is birthed in a heart that responds to God’s anointed utterance of the Anointed One."

See the NLT: "So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ."

The Law of Moses is the Word of God and every single dot of it will come to pass. But the Law of Moses is not the GOOD NEWS about Christ that we as believers are to be hearing. The Law condemns all who attempt to do its works in a bid to get right with God. See Galatians 3:10-

"Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, “Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God's curse!”"

The law condemns even the best of us. The letter kills but the Spirit gives life and with the Spirit of the Lord, it is "Not by might nor by power" aka human effort at attaining victory. Human effort at attaining godliness gets one nothing but condemnation and death.

Faith does not come through hearing the law or trying to do its works in order to be godly. The law is not of faith. Remember:"So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ." But what is this Good News about Christ? Paul explains in Romans 1:

16 “For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in His sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

The law is not of faith. Trying to obey the law in order to be godly is being faithless. And without faith it is impossible to please God. Notice the gospel (Good News) is all about "how God makes us right in His sight" and how it is by faith? See this again in Romans 3:

“26...and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.”

This is the crux of the gospel: Righteousness by faith. Romans 5:9 says:

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

In Christ, "never" above does not mean "until your next sin." Never means never. God's everlasting gift of righteousness to us in Christ is not to make us free to go on sinning sprees as many who do not yet understand and feel that everyone except them is just itching to commit sin believe. Romans 5:20 says: "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,"

God's grace super-abounds so much that sin does not stand a chance in our lives; it's akin to extinguishing a lit matchstick (sin) with the force of of a thousand fire extinguishers. Sin doesn't stand a chance under Grace. But under law, sin has dominion.

Believing Jesus is believing that we are righteous by faith in Him and not because we obeyed the law. "The law is not of faith" is a popular bible verse but many churchgoers are yet to connect the dots. The letter kills, but many religious leaders are actively preaching the satanic message that it is when you obey the law and do good things that you can be godly and get into God's good books. This false teaching follows after the example of Satan who lied to Eve that she could be godly (be like God) by human effort at doing something. But this is the result of trying:

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace."

Trying to be godly (be like God) by human effort is how to get cut off from Jesus Christ who is the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve tried to be godly (be like God) by human effort and their lot became death. See the forbidden fruit as a picture of the law that many are trying to obey in order to be godly today in Romans 7-

8-12 "Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me."

Satan is still seducing people through his ministers today by deceiving many into thinking that they can be godly by human effort at keeping the law. It seemed good to Eve, as it seems good to many in the church today. But the end is death. The letter kills. We can do nothing without Christ, least of all be godly, but these ones deny God's power in making the sinner who believes righteous through Christ and tell you to rely on the arm of flesh that will fail to attain right-standing with God. Philippians 3:2 counsels us concerning such preachers: “Beware of dogs...”

This is how God makes the sinner godly/righteous but they reject His power: Romans 5:19- “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”

As believers in Christ, our righteousness is not our own which comes from obeying the law. According to Isaiah 64:6, our best efforts only amount to "a menstrual rag" in God's sight: "We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight." This is a fruitless way of attaining righteousness that has dangerous consequences. Paul said of all his law-keeping and obedience before he embraced Christ:

Philippians 3: 7"I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with Him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith."

We are made righteous by Christ's obedience and not our puny efforts at obeying the law, as it is written in Romans 5:19- "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."

"So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ." The word of Christ from the mouth of Christ Himself:

“16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Believing Jesus is believing that we are righteous by faith in Him and not because we obeyed the law or did anything to deserve Him and God's blessings in Him. The one who is trying to obey the law to get right with God is condemned already, "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are." Romans 3:20.

The law is not of faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ. Fear too comes by hearing, by hearing the Law of Moses. Beware of preachers whose sermons are hinged on obeying the Ten Commandments and doing good things in order to be godly/righteous in the sight of God. Beware of preachers who magnify the power of the devil, whose preaching is 90% what devils can do to you and little about Jesus - the only mention of our Lord is the 'in Jesus name' at the end of each prayer point; beware of those who make you so scared with their prophecies of doom and make it so that you have to keep going back to them for new to-do lists in order to be 'free.' Beware of those who disregard the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ that makes the sinner who believes righteous and tell you to try to earn righteousness by doing works of the law.

Jesus said in Matt 16:6 - "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees." A little yeast leavens the whole lump! Many are pretending to be of Christ but watch out for the word they preach. Is it the word of Christ- Righteousness by faith- or is it that "neither cold nor hot" message that says "Yes you are saved by Grace but you still have to obey the law and do good things in order to be godly and maintain your salvation"?

All you need to do to be saved is believe! It's in the most popular bible verse in the world- JOHN 3:16. Whatever preaching leaves you (believers only) feeling that demons are going to jump you if you don't by yourself have and use a particular set of skills that only this one pastor can give you; whatever sermon tells you that what Jesus did at the cross has not already broken all generational curses; whatever sermon tells you that as a believer in Christ, you have to stand in your own righteousness from obeying the law and not that of Another - Jesus; beware of such. They will only keep one locked down under sin's dominion, "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace." Romans 6:14.

But when we receive God's abundance of Grace (undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour) and His gift of righteousness to us in Chris, we GET TO live in triumph over sin and death:

"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

This is the message of Christ. Right believing always produces right living.